Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1887-09-08
On Keeping q Diary.

Il
Many people regard the keeping OF q
diary as mertorious occupation. The
young are urged to take up this cross;
it is supposed to benefit girls especially.
Whether women should do 1t is to some
minds not an open question. although
there Is on record the case of the
Frenchman who tried to shoot himself
when he heard that his wife was keep
ing diary. This intention of suicide
may have arisen from the fear that his
wife was keeping record of his own
peccad lloes rather than of her own
thoughts and emotions. Or it may
have been from the fear that she was
putting down those little conjugal re-
marks which the husband always dis
likes to have thrown up to him. and
which woman can usually quote ac-
curately. it may be for years, it may be
for ever, without the help of diary.
So we can appreciate without APPROX
ing the terror of the Frenchman at
living on and on in the same house
with a growing diary. For it is not
simply that this little book of judg-
ment there IN black and white, but
that the maker of it is increasing her
power of minute observation and ana
lytic express on. In discussing the
question whether woman should keep
"a diary it is understood that it s not u
mere memorandum of events and en-
gagements, such. as both men and wo-
men of business and affairs necess arily
keep. but the da ly record which sets
dawn feel ngs. emotions, and impress
s ons, and critic SEES people and records
opinions. But this is question that
applies 10 men as well as to women.
1t has been assumed that the diary
serves two good purposes: it is a dis
ciplinary exercise for the keeper of it
and perhaps a moral guide; and it has
great h stor cal value. As to the first,
it may be helpful to order. method.
d scipline. and it may be an indulgence
of spleen, whims. and unwholesome
criticism and conceit The habit of
saying right out what you think of
everybody is not good one. and the
record of such opinions and impressions,
while it is not so miscellaneous to the
public as talking may be. is harmful to
the recorder. And when we come TO
the historical value of the diary, we
confess to growing suspicion of it,
1t is such a deadly weapon when il
comes TO light after the passage of
years. 1t has an authority which the
spoken words Of its keeper never had.
1t is er parte. and it cannot be cross
examined. The supposit'on is that
being contemporaneous with the events
of, it must be true, and that it is an
honest record. Now. as a matter of
fact, we doubt if people are any more
honest as to themselves or others in a
diary than out of it; and rumors. re
ported facts, and impressions set down
daily in the heat and haste of the preiu-
deal hour are about as likely to be wronl
as right. Two diaries OF the same
event rarely agree. And in turning
over an old diary we never know what
to allow for the personal equation. The
diary is greatly relied on
by the writers Of history, but
the Drawer doubts if there is
any such liar in the world, even
when the keeper of it is honest. 1t is
certain 10 be partisan. and more liable
W bC " newspaper,
which exercises some care in view of
immediate publicity. The writer hap
pens to know of two diaries which re.
cord. on the testimony Of eve witnesses,
the circumstances of the last hours of
Garfield. and they differ utterly in es-
sential particulars. One of these NAV
turn up fifty years from now. and be
accepted as true. An infinite amount
of gossip goes into diaries about men
and women that would not stand the
test OF moments contemporary pub
LEGATION. But by-and-by it may all be
used to smirch or brighten unjustly some
ones character. Suppose a man in the
army of the Potomac had recorded dali
ly all his opinions of men and OF
events. Reading it over now. with
more light and juster knowledge of
character and OF measures, is it not
probable that lie would find il tissue
of misconceptions. Few things are act
ually what they seem to-day; they are
colored both by misaprehensions and by
moods. If man writes letter or
makes report of an occurrence for inn
mediate publication, subject 10 universal
criticism. there is some restraint on
him. In his private letter. or diary es-
pecially, he is apt to set down what
comes into his head q. the moment, Oft
en- without much effort ut verilication.
Charles Dudley Harner, in Harper's